NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan - RunHalf Marathon


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New York, New York
United States
New York Road Runners
Total Time = 8h 00m
Overall Rank = 5104/5445
Age Group = F18-24
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Woke up, ate two pieces of multi-grain toast with butter and two eggs. Took a taxi to the race as it was cold and I was lazy.
Event warmup:

Two sun salutations, jogging in place, nothing too fancy.
Run
  • 2h 28m 33s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 11m 20s  min/mile
Comments:

I had an absolute blast doing this run. First of all, around mile 3, I passed my parent's house, and there was my mom, with a bag of four dates. It was great to see her, and the dates were amazingly delicious and perfect running food - really boosted my energy! It was also coincidentally great as I dropped one of my gels somewhere, so it would have been a hard race with one gel. Also, I met two girls before the start, and we started chatting. I was struggling to keep up with them for the first six miles, which had me running 10:30's or so. However, one had a hurt hamstring, one had a horrible cold, and they just weren't quite ready for a half-marathon. As for me, after six miles I felt strong and ready to go, but, I made the decision to coach them rather than to just run my fastest, and it was great - I felt really great helping them through, and they were so grateful and finished strong. For the last mile, however, I ran ahead as they wanted to walk, and insisted that they were fine. So, I sprinted to the finish, with Richard the yoga teacher's voice in my head saying, "after this, there is nothing left to do." It was great, and I had such a blast, finishing strong and joyously.
What would you do differently?:

Probably would have run the whole way and not walked if I wanted to be super fast, but I had so much fun that I didn't care!
Post race
Warm down:

Walked, did some yoga, ate food, and did trapeze class (crazy, I know.)

Event comments:

A fine Central Park race. I'd love it if they had something besides gatorade on the course, as a lot of halves do - fruit, etc. would be nice. However, great volunteers and 5,000 people makes for a fun




Last updated: 2009-12-13 12:00 AM
Running
02:28:33 | 13.1 miles | 11m 20s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/5445
Performance: Good
Course: Two loops of Central park plus an extra mile to the bandshell. Somewhat hilly, especially the second time around.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3